On 4th August 2016 a once run-down district of London gave birth to The Francis Crick Institute and baked right into its architecture is something very clever ... something that can benefit anyone who has ever had a business idea, or an idea of any kind (more on that little secret in a moment).

The Crick, as it has become known, has nothing directly to do with business. Its aim is to transform the world you and I live in, and the lives of our children, our grandchildren, and for many generations to come. It plans to do so in a very special way.

Here are the headline facts so far:

It has cost over $1000 million.

It has taken four years to build.

It is receiving roughly $200 million in funding each year from the UK Government and other organisations.

Its aim is to conduct:

‘ground-breaking research across a range of scientific disciplines’

and to help

‘laboratory discoveries to be turned into treatments as quickly as possible.’

The focus is on medical research, but the essence of genius that makes this such an exciting and revolutionary project is applicable to businesses of all size — from one man-start-ups to multinational mega-corporations (more on that in a moment).

The raison d’être behind The Francis Crick Institute is a simple concept, but one that transforms it into something very special. This magic ingredient was summed up beautifully by a microbiologist called Stuart Kauffman in two words: adjacent possibility.

Adjacent Possibility

Kauffman’s theories were focused around cells, biology and evolution, but in the four decades since he first described these concepts they have been applied to everything from how life on earth progressed from single cell organisms through to the global success of products such as the iPhone or web services such as Facebook.

The wonderful thing is that you can use the concept of adjacent possibility to achieve amazing things in your life, your career or your business. You don’t need to be the CEO of a multi-billion dollar Silicon Valley start-up to benefit from adjacent possibility. You might be a newly redundant ex-bookkeeper wanting to start your own online business selling your accounting services, or maybe you’re a teenager who wants to take the corporate business world by storm; this concept is just as applicable.

The power behind adjacent possibility lies in creating randomness that encourages and allows new things to happen.

For example, The Francis Crick Institute has been designed so that when scientists working there want to go for coffee they are channelled into a central area where they are forced to interact with scientists from other projects.

The same is true when they want to exit the building. Once again, they are funnelled into elevators and stairwells that force them to rub shoulders with scientists in other projects.

This idea of forcing scientists to meet researchers from other disciplines and other projects even extends to visits to the shared restrooms.

All of this is intentional.

If scientists researching cancer, for example, only ever meet other scientists that are working on similar cancer-related projects (which is the norm at the moment) then their knowledge will always be contained within the cancer-research bubble.

But what happens if a scientist researching cancer ends up having an informal coffee with a scientist researching an infectious disease? This random meeting could connect two disparate ideas in a totally new way that leads to a revolutionary breakthrough which changes the world. This may never have happened if that chance meeting had not occurred.

History is littered with amazing discoveries that were made purely by serendipity. Inventors can be working on a project for years and not make any major breakthroughs, but then a chance meeting with someone sparks off a new avenue of thought and, hey-presto, that momentous life-changing discovery is made.

This is the idea behind adjacent possibility and you can use this idea to take your new business, your existing business, or your career to a whole new level.

Here’s how adjacent possibility works

Discoveries are rarely made in a non-linear fashion. They tend to progress in a numerical fashion. So, for example, we can’t get from 1 to 3 without going through 2. The number 2 is the adjacent possibility. It is the item directly next to where we’re at.

For example, Youtube might be an amazing idea, but it would have been completely useless in the 1940s before computers and the Internet were available.

Even in the 1990s Youtube would still have been a non-starter as there were several other things that needed to come into play before it could succeed. Yes, the Internet existed in the 1990s, but the slow dial-up Internet connectivity of the time couldn’t handle video streaming, and many computers at that time were not even capable of playing video let alone streaming it from an online source. These factors, and many others, needed to happen before Youtube could succeed.

All these factors are adjacent possibilities and they almost always have to be worked through before the final result can happen. In the example of the above we needed to have better Internet, then more powerful computers, then the necessary video streaming formats needed to be invented, and then online tools needed to be released that allowed a site such as Youtube to be built.

The problem is the adjacent possibilities rarely happen if we lock ourselves in a bubble. Historically, this has been the norm with scientists and this has often hampered progress. Researchers working for Cancer Research UK, for example, probably rarely (if ever) speak to academics at Imperial College London and King’s College London. It is this multi-disciplinary interaction that provides the possibilities for massive progress.

This is why Silicon Valley is such an incredible hotbed of creativity.

Every day, programmers from one high tech company are rubbing shoulders in coffee shops with marketing guys or financial people from another company, and these serendipitous meetings can quickly take an idea from first base, to second base and then to third base.

In a place where people are encouraged to meet and mingle, the germ of an idea can work its way through all the necessary adjacent possibilities to take it from nothing to being a multi-billion dollar IPO in just a few months.

If you want to take your idea, or your business, to a whole new level make sure that you are making as many connections as possible. Capitalise on the power of adjacent possibilities by networking with others either in person or via social media, and when you’re not networking with others read books, magazines, and watch videos on as wide a range of topics as possible, as you never know who or what will spark that adjacent possibility that takes your idea, or your business, from 1 to 2, which can then lead you to 3, 4, 5, 6 and beyond.

Surely that pot of gold that you get when you achieved what you set out to achieve is more important than the business idea itself, and it has to be way more important than all the hard work that goes into transforming that idea into reality, right?

Maybe not.

In that original post I said:

'You can have the best idea in the world, and a brilliantly thought out plan for transforming that idea into reality, but if you've not considered what 'reality' you want to achieve, how do you know that what you'll end up with will be the reality you truly want?'

I still feel strongly that we need to have a very clear idea of the reality we want to create when we pursue an idea, whether it is a business idea, or any other kind of idea, but then I stumbled across the following quote:

'It is better to have travelled well than to arrive' Buddha

That got me thinking.

Could the journey from idea to reality REALLY be more important than the idea itself, or the reality that transpires from that idea?

In business is the journey more important than the big house, the swimming pool, the holiday home, the nice cars, and the bank account overflowing with money that await you if you succeed?

If that's the case then shouldn't we be focusing more on the journey than on dreaming up amazing ideas or setting life goals such as financial independence by the age of thirty?

Which do you think is most important:

The idea

The journey (i.e. the process of transforming your idea into reality)

The final reality or result?

Do share your thoughts below.

]]>Fri, 22 Jul 2016 15:47:37 +0000http://www.paulsmithson.com/blog/?post_id=37&title=is-reality-most-important-thing-for-you
http://www.paulsmithson.com/blog/?post_id=37When it comes to success I think the most important thing of all is reality.

I used this phrase in the blog post I made earlier this week.

"Transforming ideas into reality"

Some people raised some excellent points regarding the validity of that phrase, and I am going to give those points a lot of thought over the coming weeks, but for now that phrase, for me, is like an ABC of success, where ...

A equals the initial idea

B stands for the process of transforming that idea into reality

C is for the reality itself

I've been considering this for the last few months and can't help but think that the most important of these 3 stages is the last one, i.e. reality.

And when I say I think it is important, I really do feel it is the be-all and end-all, the whole raison d'être of why we're doing whatever it is we're doing.

You can have the best idea in the world, and a brilliantly thought out plan for transforming that idea into reality, but if you've not considered what reality you want to achieve, how do you know that what you'll end up with will be the reality you truly want?

I'm sure lots of people reading this will be thinking it is money or profit or wealth or freedom, or something along those lines. Maybe you're right?

I would argue passionately that it is none of those things, but that is just me.

There must be millions of people around the world who have had an idea and transformed that idea into reality, only to discover that the reality they ended up with was not what they had hoped.

What do you think?

Please do share your thoughts below as I really do want to hear what you think. And feel free to agree or disagree, as I'm sure there's more than one way of looking at this idea of reality. It will be great to hear all sides.

In my early 20s I spent a month travelling around Europe. I visited dozens of places, but my favourite was Nice in the South of France, and I spent hours sitting in cafes on the Promenade des Anglais where last night’s atrocity happened.

Those peaceful memories of a tree lined avenue by the sea have been shattered, but at least for me they are just distant memories. For the poor people involved yesterday the pain is real and present. Seriously, how do you cope with such heartache?

We’re not talking soldiers who had gone to war knowing they faced imminent danger. These were men and women of all ages, mothers and fathers, grandparents, and - most sad of all - young children, who went there to watch fireworks and have a fun time.

As I write this people are referring to it as a ‘terrorist attack’, but nobody knows for sure. In the days ahead I am sure the true story will emerge.

What we do know is that this was an incomprehensible event that we wouldn’t wish upon on anyone. At least I wouldn’t have thought any decent person would. Who knows what drove the person who carried out this terrible thing to do what they did? Maybe we will never know.

It sure puts everything into perspective doesn’t it?

Those troublesome work problems.

Those marketing campaigns that don’t go quite as we’d hoped.

That online service that isn’t working quite right.

That big sale that falls through.

These things are just not important. They all pale into insignificance when something like this happens.

If this was a terrorist attack then the aim of the terrorist was to terrorise us. Their aim was to make us live in fear and to turn us against each other.

Maybe it is about time everyone in the world did exactly the opposite. Instead of turning against each other, maybe we should turn toward each other and realise that we are all human beings, and no matter what nationality or religion we might be we are, fundamentally, the same, with just a handful of superficial differences.

I’m sure there will be people reading this who passionately disagree with what I’ve just said - and I know just where you’re coming from as I have often felt the same way - but maybe it is time for a change.

Alas, I don’t know how that change should come about - I wish I did - but in the meantime I want to focus my attention on the suffering of the people who were in Nice last night and their families. This is not a time for hatred, but a time for compassion.

If you completed the survey I sent out the other week I am sure you figured out that the focus of my new site is ideas, but I actually want to go way way way beyond just the idea stage.

Yes, ideas are hugely important when it comes to business, but what’s more important is transforming those ideas into reality - and that is the golden thread that I want to run through every aspect of the new site.

In the three decades I’ve been in business I’ve noticed that it isn’t ideas that are in short supply, but something else.

I’ll be doing a full analysis of the Idea's Survey next week, but for now, I’d like to share with you one golden nugget that I’ve spotted so far and that is that 73.98% of respondents said they were either ‘Very much an ideas person’ or ‘Quite often an ideas person’.

That means nearly three quarters of respondents consider themselves to be pretty good on the ideas front. Isn’t that awesome?

But then we get to the scary statistic of how many of those same people find it easy to transform ideas into reality. I can’t wait to share that statistic with you. You’ll be shocked. I know I was. But you might also be pleasantly surprised.

So, taking all of these findings into account, I want the site to help you in three different ways.

How the site will help - Stage 1

It all starts with ideas. There’s the initial creative process that leads to that light bulb moment, but then there’s the more important stage of getting that original seed of an idea and making it into something truly out of this world.

How the site will help - Stage 2

Next comes the reality phase.

Having a world beating idea is the first step, but if you want that idea to achieve its full potential you need to be clear of what reality truly means to you.

Do you wanting your idea to help you pay off your mortgage, or make you a multimillionaire, or do you want it to set you on the road to being the next Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg?

How you see the reality will greatly impact on stage 3.

How the site will help - Stage 3

This is the sandwich filling between idea and reality, and it can be summed up with the word ‘transform’. How are you going to transform YOUR idea into reality?

Over the coming months I want to populate the site with useful content and make available a range of reports, books and courses to help you on the way - the first of which should be completed shortly.

I also have some ideas of my own, that will hopefully help you to transform your great ideas into reality. All being well I’ll get a chance to share those with you over the coming months.

In the meantime I could do with your help deciding what the site slogan should be. I'm leaning towards Transform Ideas into Reality or Transforming Ideas into Reality. What do you think?

And feel free to share any thoughts you have about the new site below. Please keep them positive as I feel the most important thing when it comes to ideas, and transforming ideas into reality, is to always try to be optimistic and positive. In these times where negativity seems to rule the airwaves, let's let positivity be the order of the day.

And thanks to everyone who filled out the survey. If you didn’t see the original mail here’s a link to the survey. It would be great if you could fill it out as the more respondents there are the more accurate the results will be.

My wife was away on a girl’s trip and so I’d decided to take my youngest son to watch Ant-Man at the cinema followed by a little father-son bonding at a local restaurant.

After being seated in the restaurant I started to hear a beeping noise. I checked my phone and my son checked his, and it definitely wasn’t us. When the waitress came to take our order I asked her if she knew what it was, but at that very moment the noise stopped.

The beep-beep-beeping continued on and off throughout the whole meal and then, out of the corner of my eye I spotted the culprits. A couple were sat about five yards away from us playing some kind quiz game on a mobile phone.

Had we been in a McDonalds this would have been fine, but we were in a decent restaurant.

Rather than confront them about it, we just rushed our food down and left. Unfortunately, on the way out I couldn't resist saying something along the lines of:

As soon as I said it I could have kicked myself really hard, not because I said something, but because of what I said. Had I said something along the lines of:

“Hey, sounds like a great game you’re playing, but I just thought you should know you might want to turn it down a little as we were sat over there and could hear it pretty loud and I’m sure you wouldn’t want to be bothering anyone whilst they’re eating. Have a good one”

Said sincerely and with a smile the latter would have been far more positive for everyone concerned.

On the way home I continued to beat myself. I think I was most annoyed with myself for reacting impulsively rather than thinking about my reaction first and choosing my words carefully.

A win-win all round ... cool!

Luckily, by the time we arrived home I’d figured out a solution to the problem. Not only was it a solution that would make me think twice before reacting impulsively, but it was one that would benefit others at the same time - so a win-win all round. Cool!

In a nutshell I made a promise to myself that if I reacted impulsively in an angry way (no matter how mildly) to anyone in the future I’d add $10 into a Zidisha account.

Zidisha is a terrific micro-financing service that lends money to people in African and several other regions. In most cases this money is then used to start or grow a business, so I can really relate to this kind of entrepreneurial spirit.

The lender doesn’t receive any interest, which I prefer as I don’t want to generate a profit for myself from this kind of contribution.

And the really cool thing is that with Zidisha you can decide where your money goes. If you want your help to go to someone growing organic produce you can choose that, or maybe you’d like to help a woman who is trying to earn a living to put her five children through school - the choice is totally yours.

An incredibly cheap way of borrowing

The borrower repays the money they’ve received from you over a lengthy period of time and with a very nominal interest rate. If I remember rightly it is about 5% for the whole period of the loan, which means no compounding. So a loan of $100 might cost them $5 over two years, which makes it an incredibly cheap way of borrowing - way cheaper than conventional banks or other lending institutions. The interest goes directly to Zidisha to cover the costs and to help keep the service operational.

As the borrower repays the loan the money ends up back in your Zidisha account and you can choose someone else to lend it to.

I figured $10 would be enough of a punishment, but since that very mild incident in the restaurant there’s only been one other incident and that was so mild that there might have only been me that noticed I was a little angry.

So, there are three major benefits from my little system.

It makes me pause and think twice before I get angry as I know it will cost me $10.

If I do get angry - no matter how mildly - someone who needs a little help gets a little help.

I get to eliminate any negative karmic footprint I might have generated by my negativity.

I use Zidisha, but you might well have a worthy cause that is close to your heart. It isn’t the specific cause that is important it is the fact that before getting angry you will be more likely to pause for just a moment, and in that pause you will usually see that your anger doesn’t benefit anyone, and so you just let it go, or deal with the situation in a more positive way.

Positivity is crucial, whether it is in business or in life in general. A little side bet like this one works wonders to help eliminate negative communication, whilst replacing it with positivity and helping someone else to create a better life for themselves and their family - if that is not a win-win situation then I don’t know what is.

There have always been charlatans and con men (and women) around. It isn't a new phenomenon or one that came about purely because of the Internet.

However, the Internet has given the dubious characters who prey on innocence, desperation and/or gullibility, a massive stage on which to operate. To make matters even worse it has allowed them the ability to practice their deceptions in an anonymous way; something that wasn't as easy in those magical days before any of us had heard the terms www or email.

I reckon I have a pretty good radar for spotting scams, but even I am sometimes taken in briefly by some of the magical promises that these scam artists make. In fact, it happened to me this morning.

I had dropped my eldest son off at the train station and headed over to a small village at the edge of the Yorkshire Dales. After taking my dog for a walk along the river bank, I headed to one of my favorite cafes for a hot drink and some gluten-free toast.

Usually, when I arrive at this particular cafe all the seats are taken, but today I managed to bag my favorite spot in one of the comfy seats in the corner. I had some writing I wanted to get going on so I already had my laptop out by the time the waitress came over with my morning treat.

At this point I have a confession to make. I should have got straight on with the writing, but instead of that I made that fatal mistake of checking my email. It is a bad habit and one that is almost guaranteed to side-track me for a good half an hour or more.

One of the emails was from a well known Internet Marketer. The subject read:

Subject: Guaranteed Outcome JV - Day 2 Update

It is rare that I get involved in any of these joint-venture launches, unless I REALLY believe in what's on offer - which is VERY rare indeed - but my interest was slightly piqued so I clicked on the link to see what it was all about. Before I knew it I'd spent quarter of an hour, or maybe longer, watching a promotional video with a silky smooth voiceover and numerous promises that beggared belief and some statements that I couldn't help think were bordering on outright lies.

I decided to do a little digging. I even signed up for the service to see just how many of the promises were actually true and how many were variations upon an interpretation of what could possibly be the truth if you stretched it far enough.

This 'scheme' revolved around something called binary trading, which is a popular area for today's get-rich-quick aficionados apparently. In a nutshell the system uses a little-known quirk of computer networks to take advantage of the spread between buy and sell trades. Sounds plausible, right?

I mentioned above that the promotional video included what I'd consider to be statements that bordered on outright lies. One that seemed about as fishy as a sardine packaging plant was the claim that this system would make you so much money that you'd be propelled into the richest 1% of the richest 1%.

Really?

By this point I'd totally sacrificed any hope of a peaceful hour or two writing, whilst enjoying my morning refreshments, so I decided to use the little time remaining to check on this statistic. It only took me a few moments find the following article on The Economist web site.

According to The Economist you'd need an average net wealth of around $73 million to be amongst the top one-percent of the top one percent. I seriously doubt that this interesting scheme could manage to achieve such results.

When Bernie Madoff was accused of running a $50 billion ponzi scheme in 2008, members of the investment community said the scheme should have raised red flags as it was "too good to be true". I can't help but think the same could be said of the The Guaranteed Outcome scheme.

I might be totally wrong. The Guaranteed Outcome scheme could be the modern day equivalent of Jack's magic beans or the goose's golden egg. There's nothing specific to say it is a scam or that there is anything in the slightest bit illegal about it.

Who knows, maybe some of these schemes are worth a closer look if you're interested in getting rich quickly and easily. My only advice would be to do a little due diligence before proceeding - even if that might just be a few Google searches just to make sure it isn't a scam.

I do try to keep an open mind about this kind of thing, so if you have any experience of these binary trading systems or of this Guaranteed Outcome scheme please do share your thoughts in the comments below.

I'd also be interested to hear whether you think these get-rich-quick schemes are becoming increasingly far-fetched in what they're offering or whether it is just me getting older and more cynical.

I was chatting with a friend over a coffee yesterday. Amanda is an aromatherapist, which is how we originally met. As our cappuccinos cooled-down and the conversation heated-up she was explaining to me how recently she had been spending every evening, and most weekends, transforming herself into an online marketing expert.

During the conversation it struck me that Amanda had all the right skills for running an online business, and later in the afternoon it dawned on me that it wasn't just Amanda that had all the right skills for running an online business - it was pretty much all women. This seemed particularly appropriate considering it was International Women's Day that day.

Now, if I were one of the fairer sex you could understand me writing an article boasting about how genetically, and socially, matched women are to online business, but hey, I'm a man!

I grabbed a piece of paper and made a list and in no time had come up with 10 reasons why women are so well suited to starting and running successful online businesses.

There are probably many more than this initial ten, but let me explain those and then you can shoot me down in flames for being sexist if you like - or if you are of the fairer sex and you think I'm right maybe you can make me an honorary member of the Women's Institute or something. why women are perfect for online success

Reason #1 - Flexible hours

Over the years women, particularly those who have children, have had to get used to squeezing in the working hours around child care needs.

As a father myself I would like to think I did my fair share of nappy changing, but if I am honest I have to admit that my wife was the master when it came to flexibility and still is.

Reason #2 - Ability to Multitask

Succeeding online often means juggling multiple balls at the same time. One minute you're replying to social media posts, the next you're updating the web site, then there's the online payments to check ... and the list goes on and on.

Men are great at focusing on one task at a time, which can be a very good thing, but when it comes to an ability to multitask the award definitely has to go to women.

Reason #3 - Networking Skills

Women seem to be a lot better than men at networking in a genuine and caring way. There's less of the 'what's in it for me' and more of the 'how can we help each other?' attitude, which helps any networking to be a positive experience rather than a cynical attempt to manipulate someone else to obtain some kind of benefit.

Reason #4 - Less about Tech and more Touch

Many men are comfortable with the technology and love to tinker, whereas most women don't really care about playing with the techie toys and are more bothered about how they can use the technology to connect with others.

In the past this lack of willingness to focus on the technology would have hampered progress, but these days a lot of technology just works, which is great as it lets people focus on their online business and not quite as much on the technology behind their online business.

Reason #5 - Patience is a virtue

For a variety of reasons men usually want to see immediate results, whereas women are, in many cases, happy to set the ball in motion (or many balls) and wait patiently for the results to materialize.

Rather than give up too soon women are often able to adopt a slowly-slowly-catchy-monkey approach that might not result in immediate gains, but does lead to a very healthy level of success in the medium to long term.

Reason #6 Career break due to motherhood

This obviously doesn't count for all women or for women encompassing all the different ages, but for some women motherhood offers a chance to have a complete change of career.

I've lost count of the many successful online business women who, in a past life, had demanding careers in a wide variety of professions.

Reason #7 Women are more likely to use outsourcing

In my experience women seem a lot more comfortable outsourcing tasks that they would otherwise struggle with.

Men seem to have an inbuilt desire to want to do everything themselves (at least to start with), whereas women will often take a much more pragmatic approach and realize that they are better focusing on their strengths and letting someone else mop-up all those jobs they either struggle with or just don't want to do.

Reason #8 Women ask for help more than men

Women are often more likely to both give and accept help from others, whereas men often seem reluctant to seek help when they need it, as though it will, in some way, impact on their macho belief that they can solve all problems themselves.

Instead of seeing others as deadly competitors who have to be beaten, women seem to be very happy to help other women on the road to success. This is such a positive and healthy attitude. Yes, there are men who are just as generous, but alas, this trait doesn't seem quite as common amongst males as it does females.

Reason #9 Women have a flair for social media and blog posts

There are obviously some amazing writers around who are guys, but as far as a natural flair for social media is concerned I think women don't just edge it, they win hands down.

I read lots of online content and am always taken aback at how prolific and professional many women are. They seem to have a real knack for creating content that brings the topic to life.

Reason #10 Women don't suffer as much from paralysis through analysis

Women seem to be a lot better than men at just getting on with things.

For example women who have business coaches will usually seriously commit to doing everything the coach tells them to do - or at least to get going and give it a try before dismissing it. Men, on the other hand, will frequently doubt what they are hearing or reading, figure there has to better way, and so read more books, take more courses, watch more videos, or anything else they figure might provide the 'right' answer.

This paralysis through analysis seriously hampers progress for men. The female attitude of getting the instructions they need and then following them to the letter is far more positive and much more likely to result in success.

Conclusion

Again, I have to stress that the 10 reasons I've mentioned above obviously don't count for all women. There are indeed many men out there who have some, or all, of these skills in abundance.

Also, please don't take any offence over this being some kind of sexist stereotyping. I'm sure most reasonable people will agree that there are differences between men and women and that these differences should be celebrated. My 10 reasons hopefully cover some of those reasons in a positive light.

And as for the men reading this - who are now wishing they were women - the good news is that there will be certain attributes and skills that 'typical' males ooze in abundance, but this article is all about women so we'll have to save that for another day. Maybe when it is International Men's Day (is there such a thing?) I will be able to write a post highlighting what those are.

Hopefully, if you are a women reading this, and you have any doubts about whether you can succeed online, some of these 10 reasons will have jumped out at you and helped you to realize that you do have some wonderful skills that are so well suited to starting and running an online business.

I'm also putting together a resources page specially for helping women to succeed online - click here - so if you know of any books, courses, web sites or other resources that are specifically aimed at women please do let me know.

This is quite a lengthy post, as it goes into step-by-step detail so rather than restrict it to a short blog post I've given the system its very own dedicated page. This also makes it easier for other people to link to as well.

I do urge you to give this system a try as it really does work pretty much every time.

Is it just me or are all morning newspapers full of little else but bad news?

By the time I get a quarter of the way through my daily paper, I’ve seen enough doom and gloom to make me want to go back to bed, pull up the duvet cover, and go back to sleep.

Over the last two years, I’ve been weaning myself off this daily dose of negativity. You could say I’ve invented my own version of the 12-step program, but for reformed addicts of doom and gloom laden newspapers.

I am pleased to say I have made excellent progress!

These days I rarely buy a newspaper and, if I do come across one during the day, I restrict myself to nothing but a quick skim. This is massive progress for me and it has made a colossal difference to the start of each day.

Instead of pumping myself full of a mental diet of negative news and doom mongering, I now have a list of web sites that I’ve bookmarked, which I try to visit at some point each day. These are all sites containing positive news stories from around the world. I love them!

Whilst indulging in my daily dose of positivity I came across the video below. It had me laughing, smiling and shedding a tear all at the same time.

It is a short video of the morning welcome that a retiring CEO received on his last day in the office. Try watching it without a big grin spreading across your face. I’ll bet you can’t do it.

In the title I refer to writing mailings that work, but to be honest it could just as easily have said social media posts, articles, direct mail shots or even brochures, as the tips, tricks and techniques covered here apply to pretty much every type of writing imaginable.

When my kids were at school they would often moan about writing and say that in these 'modern times' writing is a lost art. I used to tell them it is is exactly the opposite and that most people are writing more now than they have ever done.

In the 'old days' as my kids would refer to it, we could spend a whole day at work and, depending on the field we worked in, would rarely have to get our creative juices flowing and creating a piece of writing that really hit the target. These days it is pretty much a daily activity.

In these twenty tips I've tried to distill the truly important aspects of writing business related material of all kinds. These are tips, tricks and techniques that I've learned the hard way, over thirty years of being in business. Hopefully, by sharing them with you I will save some of you that rather long learning curve so that you can produce writing that REALLY works every time.

Have you ever wanted to create beautiful looking infographics, but didn't have a clue where to start?

Everyone seems to love infographics these days, and I have to confess I am pretty partial to them myself. I think they're a great way to get a lot of information across quickly in a way that makes it a pleasure to read.

I've been on the hunt for some software, or an online service, for creating great-looking infographics for a while. In the process I must have tested well over a dozen different tools, but didn't really fall in love with any of them. They were either too fiddly or far too expensive.

Then I stumbled across a service called Infogr.am.

The great news with Infogr.am is that they offer a wonderful free version of the service.

I often find that the free versions with this kind of thing are so restricted that they are hardly worth using, but that is definitely not the case here. Their free plan is terrific. If your needs are anything like mine I think you will find the free service to be more than enough for your needs.

So, if you want to add some cool infographics to your site, or share them on social media, then I can highly recommend checking out this service.

Check out my full review to see how quickly and easily you can create infographics with Infogr.am … read more

The results are in from the survey I carried out last week, which asked respondents to describe what struggles they currently faced with their online business.

The results made for interesting reading and the survey certainly opened my eyes to some of the difficulties that people were having with everything from traffic through to planning.

I wanted to share the results with everyone in the hope that it would be encouraging for people to realize that they are not on their own with their struggles.

It is only too easy to sit at your computer pulling your hair out in frustration at the things you are having difficulty with. Once you understand that you are far from on your own with your struggles, be it sales and marketing, planning, writing, or whatever else, it becomes a lot easier to motivate yourself to push through those difficulties.

Please do share your thoughts on these results below as I'd love to know how you feel when you can clearly see what other people are struggling with.

That’s the kind of comment I’ve been getting every day from friends and family since I told them I was going to take things easy for a while.

“They’re wrong I thought?”

The idea of being able to put my feet up whilst enjoying a good book, going for walks in the afternoon with my wife, helping our children with their lives, and a little charity work each week, would surely be enough to keep me occupied.

But then on the flip side …

Over the last few weeks I’ve been giving a lot of thought to how I can keep myself busy, and my mind active whilst still lifting my foot off the gas and taking things easier.

I’ve always loved building businesses - it's been my passion ever since I graduated from business school quarter of a century ago - gosh, where does the time go?

I’m one of the few people I know who loves nothing more than spending a day devouring the latest business books, perusing the pages of Harvard Business Review, having coffee with friends who are needing help with their business, and hunting for new software that will improve business performance and personal productivity.

Would I miss all of this?

The answer is a resounding ‘Yes’.

After a great deal of thought I came to the conclusion that the best thing I could do would be to spend some time helping others with their businesses, whether it be a new idea they want to pursue, or a problem they’re having with an existing business.

I’ve already volunteered for a local charity aimed at helping young people who want to start a business, but I figured it wouldn’t harm to offer my help to those people who were kind enough to support Intellimon over the last decade.

Over the past few weeks I’ve received so many lovely messages wishing me all the best for the future, that I felt it would be wonderful to try and put something back.

So, I have three questions.

Question #1 - What can I do to help?

Question #2 - What is the best format for delivering this help?

Question #3 - What topics do I need to focus on?

If you could spare a moment to let me know your thoughts that would be awesome. Your input will help me to stay focused on what people really need most help with, and to deliver it in the format that’s best for you.

I've put together a really little survey - just three quick questions.

I absolutely love mind maps. I use them all the time and if you don't I urge you to give them a try.

If I'm writing an article out comes the mind map. If I'm starting a major new project (or even a minor one) out comes the mind map. When I was getting married the first thing I did was get all the planning information into a mind map. I even use them to plan vacations, business trips, house moves, and Christmas present lists.

If you've never used a mind map you're in for a real treat, and if you're starting or running an online business then I can't sing their praises highly enough. They really can make a huge difference in the success of a project.

They're the perfect tool for making sense of all of those disparate thoughts whirling around inside your brain, and once you get used to using them you'll find that the ideas just keep flowing and flowing. It is like taking the cork off of a good bottle of champagne.

I first started using mind maps back in the 1980s when I was a student. I stumbled across a book by Tony Buzan, and immediately fell in love with the whole idea. I felt mind mapping freed my creativity and allowed me to move from a linear thought pattern (e.g. lists) to a more holistic thinking approach that didn't box me in.

In those early days of mind mapping the only way you could do it was with pen and paper. There were no computer programs to help with the flow, and as for online mind mapping tools, well this was the 1980s so the world wide web was probably just a twinkle in Tim Berners-Lee mind at the time.

Since the 1980s I've used a wide variety of different mind mapping tools ranging from Windows and Mac software through to online mapping tools. I even have a whole wall in my office that is covered from floor to ceiling with a dry-white board type material. This is what I use when I have some serious out-of-the-box thinking to do. It is where I've planned every piece of software we've ever done, and all the online courses we created first started life as a giant mind map on the floor to ceiling white board.

The tool I probably use most these days is Mindmeister. The great news is that this online tool lets you have three mindmaps for free, which for most people will probably be enough.

I figured there might be some people reading this who aren't familiar with mind maps so I've been digging around for some useful resources to help you master the art of mind maps.

This video provides an excellent introduction to the whole concept of mind mapping.

And if you want to learn from the master here is a video of Tony Buzan doing a 55 minute presentation. He has a lovely, mild-mannered style of delivery. The only downside is that the cameraman could have done a better job of showing what's on the screen. However, the audio recording is top-notch and so it is well worth listening to even if you just have it playing whilst you get on with something else.

This video is useful to newcomers to mind mapping, but it also includes some excellent advice for those who are already familiar with this useful skill.

If you prefer reading to watching videos here are three well-rated titles. I was trying to find the Tony Buzan title I originally read back in the 1980s, but it seems to be out of print now, although I did find a more recent book by Tony Buzan.

As I mentioned above, my current favorite mind mapping tool is Mindmeister. There are three reason I prefer this tool over the many others.

It is online, which means I can access my mind maps from any computer. I don't have worry about backing them up or copying them to a USB stick when I leave the office. I can start a mind map at the office, carry on working on it over coffee in my local coffee shop, and then finish it off when I get back home.

It has a lot of useful features such as the ability to collaborate on mind maps with colleagues, go back in time to an earlier version of the mind map, and apps to access the mind maps on iPhones, iPads and Android.

It is a nice clean and uncluttered workspace, which I feel is absolutely crucial as it allows your mind to focus on the ideas and concepts you want to map rather than getting bogged down in the usability of the tool itself.

Make sure to select the basic free account. You'll see the link to it at the bottom of that page, on the left.

NOTE: I am NOT an affiliate of this service so I don't earn a penny, or get rewarded in any way, if you join. I don't even know the people. It is just that I like Mindmeister as it means my mindmaps are stored in the cloud and so I can access them from anywhere and on any device.

With that account you can create three mind maps, which for most people will be sufficient at any one time. You can always delete the older ones when you need to create a new one and if you do want to upgrade to another plan you can - although as I mentioned above, I'm not an affiliate so I don't benefit either way (I just mention that for all those cynics who think everything is a sales exercise).

One question I often get asked is what can you use mindmaps for when it comes to setting up or running an online business. Here are just a handful of ideas.

Produce huge lists of related keywords.

Plan social media campaigns

Brainstorm a new business idea

Map out the features in a new piece of software

Create the framework for a training course

Decide on the chapters and sections for an ebook

Produce a full-blown marketing plan

Gain a clearer idea of customer profiles and their characteristics

Once you get going with mindmaps you'll find them a wonderful tool for pretty much any occasion when you need to think creatively.

I do hope you've found this little introduction to mind mapping useful. I am so glad that I discovered mindmapping when I was a student, and I've found it to be invaluable in business; both online and offline.

Once you get the hang of mindmapping I'm sure you too will find it an indispensable tool. Who knows, you might even end up with a floor to ceiling whiteboard in your office before long.

For years I was a serious night owl. I’d go so far as to say my favorite time for working was between 10pm and 4am. This was the time when I could really focus and my productivity would go through the roof.

However, for health reasons I was told I had to start going to bed early - and I mean really early. Instead of burning the midnight oil every night, I was instructed to get to bed by 9pm.

I really thought I’d never achieve this, but I’ve amazed myself. On most nights you’ll now find me tucked up nice and early, and up at the crack of down doing yoga and meditation. It’s been a wonderful transformation.

That said, I’m still tapping away on the computer right up until just before I go to bed, so I was intrigued to discover that the lightwaves emitted by the computer can have a serious impact on your ability to get to sleep and the quality of sleep itself.

Apparently, the frequency that the computer monitor displays light is akin to daylight and so staring at a computer just before you go to bed is not a good thing to do.

I discovered all of this from a program I was listening to as I drove home from the office. On the program they had an interview with a guy who’d written a piece of software called Flux, which automatically changes the light frequency of your computer to match the daylight hours. In other words, the display will be normal throughout the day, but then change to a more night friendly frequency as the sun falls.

At first I figured this must be a change in the brightness setting, but it turns out to be a lot cleverer than just that.

As soon as I got home I installed the software on my main desktop computer and was a little shocked when it slowly (in about 20 seconds) turned the display to a warm glow that was much more orange than normal.

Amazingly, it only took me a few minutes to get used to the new look, and have to say I can already see that this is pretty cool stuff.

I’ll give you an update once I’ve been using it for a few days, but I’m already sure that it is going to be of benefit as my monitor has a much more nightly glow about it than before, and it seems a lot more comfortable on the eyes now that the sun has set.

And the great thing is, the software knows by my location when the sun rises so the display will turn back to normal automatically once the sun rises.

My eldest son starts his first full time job on Monday and I wanted to help him out by giving him the advice I wish I'd received a century ago when I started my first job.

I remember starting my first job all those years ago and I must confess that at the time I thought I knew it all. The truth is I didn't know what I didn't know - and that was a LOT!

The young people of today seem to be a lot more receptive to listening to those who have been there and done that. When I went to work back in 1980 there was a real generation gap. Youngsters felt they knew it all, and those with a few more years under their belt felt only they had all the answers and that these young upstarts knew absolutely nothing.

With changes in technology, marketing and business - I think today's world is a lot different. It is one in which youngsters have a very valuable contribution to make and it would be crazy not to listen to them.

On the flip side, there are many people who have a few more years under their belt that have got an amazing wealth of real knowledge. We're not talking knowledge about the latest fashion or techno-fad, but real-life lessons learned over several decades - and this is what I want to share with my son.

So, over the last few days I've been putting together a list of points that I feel it is important for my son to take onboard when starting this first full time job. Of course, he can choose to ignore this advice and sail his own ship in whatever direction he chooses (and who knows he might be totally right), but if even just half the things mentioned here turn out to be useful navigation points on his journey then I feel it will have been time well spent.

Please do share your thoughts and any anecdotes below as I'm sure I've not covered everything, and it will be wonderful for him to hear it from other people.

"In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes."

There isn't much I'd disagree with Benjamin over, but if you build websites there will undoubtedly come a time when you need a button - that's a certainty. It might be a simple download button, a subscribe now button, or a whole heap of buttons for a menu - but it is as certain as death and taxes.

If your time for needing a button hasn’t come yet, trust me, it will. It is just a matter of time :-)

If you’re a dab hand at Photoshop, or some other graphic software, then you’ll probably be able to throw out a half decent button or two, but if you’re anything like me you’ve got better things to do than spend half an hour in photoshop making a button.

I needed a button recently and so did a quick Google to see if there was something around that could produce a nice clean-looking button for me. Here was my criteria for choosing a tool:

It had to be quickIt had to be easyIt had to be free

I’m not averse to paying for things - far from it - but I was hoping that I could get the one button I needed without having to open my wallet, or waste half-an-hour loading up Photoshop.

One of the first sites I stumbled across met my needs perfectly, so I wanted to share it with you as I figured if it was useful for me, it might be useful for you too. Hope so!

It’s called Da Button Factory.

If you’re after something that designs all-singing-all-dancing buttons then this is NOT the place, but if you want a nice and clean button that does the trick perfectly then this site is worthy of a bookmark.

I’ve put together a little video to show you how quick and easy it is to get an attractive button in a very short period of time. After watching it I’m sure you’ll agree it is as simple and straight forward as it could possibly be.

I figured for the sake of completeness it might be a good idea to give you a list of other button-making tools, so I did a bit more Googling and now I’ve got buttons all over the place.

Here's a list. The quality ranges from excellent to pretty terrible, but I figured what might be to my taste might not be to yours, and equally the buttons created by some of these sites might not be to my liking, but you may love them. It's all down to personal preferences, isn't it?

I'm not American and I don't live in America so Thanksgiving Day means NOTHING to me - a big fat ZERO!!!

Right?

Wrong!

I love Thanksgiving.

I applaud the Americans - and the Canadians and everyone else who celebrates Thanksgiving - for creating this VERY special day. I can't think of anything better to celebrate, than giving thanks.

When I checked my inbox this morning it was full to the brim with Thanksgiving Day related mails, but there was one message that really struck a chord.

It wasn't from a friend, or anyone I knew personally. It was from a health related website called mercola.com.

The message was from Dr. Mercola himself. It read:

"Be thankful for what you have. When life gives you a 100 reasons to cry, remember the 1,000 reasons you have to smile. Face your past without regret; prepare for the future without fear; focus on what's good right now, in the present moment, and practice gratitude."

Over the last few years I might have had a few reasons to cry, but over the last decade I've had thousands upon thousands of reasons to smile.

I have a beautiful wife who is also my best friend, and two wonderful children, and some amazing friends and family, and heck, I'm still waking up every morning, which has got to be good.

But there's more. So much more.

Thanks to my business, over the last decade I've had the chance to work with so many talented people from programmers, designers, and writers, and the awesome people who have provided technical support, manned the offices, handled the paperwork, and kept me filled with coffee on those nights where I burned the candle at both ends.

I send my thanks to everyone who has been part of the Intellimon community. Whether as a user of XSitePro, XHeader or XCommentPro, one of the many training courses we've released, or maybe you've just been on our mailing list and received updates over the years.

You have provided me with the chance to be passionate about everything from software development through to Internet marketing, writing and online business in general.

You've provided me with a reason to jump out of bed each morning to work on a huge range of exciting projects.

Your feedback, good and bad, has helped us to make huge strides forward, and your kind words have provided a much needed motivational boost when such a boost has been sorely needed.

On the 27th November 2013 - a year ago today - I made a post about the future of XSitePro. At that time I was feeling at a very low ebb. I'm pleased to say I'm now feeling a lot better than I did, and hopefully am now on the road to making a full recovery. For that I am so thankful, and I put a lot of that down to the positive messages you sent at the time and for all the wonderful advice that came flooding in - so much of which I've been following over this last year.

Thousands of Reasons to Smile

Dr. Mercola said "remember the 1,000 reasons you have to smile". I don't have 1,000 I have thousands - and each and every one of them is incredibly special.

He ended by reminding us to live in the present moment and to practice gratitude. After the last ten years I know exactly what he means.

As for "preparing for the future without fear" I must say that having the Closing Down Sale for Intellimon has been one of the hardest things I've had to do, but now that it is almost over (it ends tomorrow) I am excited about the future and grateful for the chance to hopefully benefit people in other ways.

I hope that Dr. Mercola's words resonate with you too, and that even though you may have 100 reasons to cry, you can also remember the 1,000 reasons to smile.